Lapid looks to create national coronavirus centers, solve economic crisis

Yesh Atid leader’s plan includes steps to open the skies by September 1, reduce rnumber of ministers to 18.

By HAGAY HACOHEN
YAIR LAPID: I will not go into a government with someone who is the opposite of honesty and decency. (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
YAIR LAPID: I will not go into a government with someone who is the opposite of honesty and decency.
(photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid presented a detailed outline on efforts to curb further coronavirus outbreaks and offered solutions for the country’s spiking unemployment rate, The Jerusalem Post’s sister publication, Maariv, reported on Friday.
Lapid’s plan discussed other goals than those presented by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Israel Katz in their “safety net” and financial distribution program.
Lapid’s plan includes establishing a national command center to combat the COVID-19 outbreak with the cooperation of the Defense Ministry’s National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA), and creating 35 centers to process data coming in from COVID-19 checks, which would employ a combined 3,000 Israelis. He has also suggested reducing the number of ministers from 35 to 18.
Additionally, Lapid wants to create a national information center that will offer Israelis clear instructions on how to best keep safe from coronavirus.
He is also pushing for recruiting efforts to hire more teachers, nurses and social workers among those currently unemployed.
Social workers were on a general strike for over a week. On Wednesday, the Nurses’ Union said it will begin a limited strike next Monday.
The nurses claim the Finance Ministry is refusing to approve new positions in their fields at a time in which they are required to handle an increased number of patients. Emergency medical procedures will be offered despite the nurses’ strike.
Lapid supports offering milestone dates in the near future to provide a sense of upcoming stability, among them the goal date of mid-August to reopen event halls under new health guidelines and September 1 to reopen the skies to flying.
The plans put out by Netanyahu and Katz were criticized for failing to offer “growth engines.” Lapid’s plan includes five national projects with a focus on improving the nation’s infrastructure that could serve as such engines.  
When debating the financial distribution program, the Finance Ministry’s Budget Department head, Shaul Meridor, warned Netanyahu that “this will turn us into Venezuela,” meaning Israel would suffer similar financial upheavals, poverty and hunger as the South American country under President Nicolás Maduro.


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